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Topic: Books from Harpia-Publishing (Read 45625 times)

Apology if my previous statement annoys u. As a Chinese,though I'm not pride of this,I have not found any useful or even non-stupid books about Chinese military aircraft. Ye Gordon have contribute a lot in this point including 2 books and several chapters in his MiG-21，Tu-16，MiG-19. I hope your work can change my mind. Here are some useful links.But please be noted the sites may harm your computer. I cannot make sure there are no viruses.

No need to apologise especially in mind of what has been published so far !

To admit, it was my aim to at least correct a bit of what Yefim and others have done in the past (even with my own limitations in mind) and surely the Chinese aviation industry, its military and overall capabilities were usually treated by most Western assessments (even if I won’t call Yefim books a typical Western assessment .. more the Russian view !) influenced by myth, ignorance and prejudice. On the other side especially for a foreigner it is still difficult to differ between facts and fiction, wishful thinking and overenthusiastic sentiments, which were also more than once mixed with national pride; especially if You take a closer look at several of the local bbs.

If I was able to rectify this or if I failed too … it’s up to the readers to decide and as such I would suggest to pm me Your postal address, then I will provide You with one example of the book for free for a review …

With the hope not to disappoint… Deino

« Last Edit: October 24, 2012, 08:01:44 am by Deino »

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He was my North, my South, my East and West,My working week and my Sunday rest,My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;I thought that love would last forever; I was wrong....For nothing now can ever come to any good.-------------------------------------------------W.H.Auden (1945)

Deino said - Just a maybe stupid question but does anyone know if this book will be allowed to be sold in China

I was in Shanghai and Hangzhou back in 2009 and was astounded by the number and content of the aviation magazines in the bookshops and news stands. I bought a few and while I haven't a clue what the text says, the illustrations were quite diverse, good quality and detailed. Unfortunately all I saw flying was a single Flounder, but quite exciting all the same. Ah, just like the old days.

World headlines remain replete with references to China’s energetic economy and political ascendancy. And its mysterious, muscular military clearly enjoys the benefits of lavish research, development, technology and production spending.

Now HARPIA PUBLISHING strips the shroud of secrecy with an indispensable handbook on emergent Chinese air power by Andreas Rupprecht and Tom Cooper.

Modern Chinese Warplanes sports 256 pages, hundreds of color photos and twelve maps. After brief historical notes, contents course from indigenous aircraft designs and weapons through markings and serials to orders of battle.

Subtitled “Combat Aircraft and Units of the Chinese Air Force and Naval Aviation”, coverage includes both the People’s Liberation Army Air Force and the People’s Liberation Army Naval Air Force – the so-called “second Chinese Air Force”.

Rupprecht and Cooper unearth some real nuggets. Notes on so-called “direct-reporting units”, for instance, include images of the Soaring Dragon UAV – as well as modified Tupolev Tu-154M and Boeing 737-3Q8 jet transports for ELINT/SIGINT missions. And those Shenyang J-6 UCAVs nearly gave me whiplash!

I frankly wished the authors broadened coverage to Chinese warplanes for export – like Chengdu’s FC-1/JF-17 fighter and Nanchang’s venerable A-5. But readers can reference HARPIA’s excellent IRIAF 2010: The Modern Iranian Air Force and African MiGs (vols 1 & 2) for select details of China’s international aviation efforts. Coverage of recent, multi-role designs like Guizhou’s JL-9 and Hongdu’s L-15 would have also enriched the account.

But I quibble. HARPIA has forged a radiant reputation with gems like this richly illustrated guide. Modern Chinese Warplanes deserves a place on the shelves of Far East military scholars and enthusiasts.

Get this terrific tome.

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He was my North, my South, my East and West,My working week and my Sunday rest,My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;I thought that love would last forever; I was wrong....For nothing now can ever come to any good.-------------------------------------------------W.H.Auden (1945)

This book is the most up to date coverage of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force(PLAAF) and the People’s Liberation Army Naval Air Force( PLANAF).

The book is divided into three main areas- the current aircraft in service, their weaponry and the ORBAT of both services.

First part of the book introduces a brief history of PLAAF and PLANAF, this gives readers a concise understanding of both services’ history that helps the readers to understand the services formation and organization as what they are today.

Next a large chunk of the book is devoted to the next chapter- the details of the various types of combat and combat support aircraft currently in service as of 2012. The types covers fighters J-7,J-8, J-10, J-11, J-15,J-20, SU-27/30, JH-7, A-5 and H-6 bomber. Each type is accompanied by development history, details of specifications such as design, avionics, weapon systems and performance. High definition pictures are included for each type as well. A surprising number of unseen pictures are included too.

In addition the combat support types are included in the following chapters- the transports, AWACS trainers are covered as well. The AWACS fleet is one of most obscure subject in the PLAAF.

One useful chapter what was missing in other publications was the up to date weaponry deployed, which in this book is well documentated with pictures and illustrations. This chapter covers air-to-air and air-to-surface/ship or anti-radar missiles, plus PGMs, GP-bombs. Also a small mention of the Chinese nuclear weapons as well.

As much as most modellers like myself it will be good if the scale drawings of the aircraft are included as well, this will certainly complement the excellent pictures and color profiles in the book.

Chapter 4 deals with the ever mysterious serials of PLAAF and PLANAF aircraft. This chapter once and for all lifted all the mystery and confusion. How each aircraft is assigned to its regiments, divisions and military regions are explained. There is also a table detailing all the units with assigned serials since 2005.

Finally, Chapters 5 and 6 is the most comprehensive part of the book . Down to regimental level, the and complete ORBATs of the PLAAF and the PLANAF, Military Regions, and PLAN’s Fleet by Fleet, Division by Division are presented lavishly complete with photos, artworks, maps and tables.

The manner in which it was presented was easy to understand for most readers, each military region or fleet and their bases are accompanied by maps. A short write up of each division and a table detailing the regiments, the serials, type of aircraft deployed and the bases.

In conclusion this is currently THE book to get if you are into PLAAF/PLANAF. It has comprehensive coverage and up to date data. Highly recommended. I have a number of the Harpia titles and this title is certainly worth having in your collection.

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He was my North, my South, my East and West,My working week and my Sunday rest,My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;I thought that love would last forever; I was wrong....For nothing now can ever come to any good.-------------------------------------------------W.H.Auden (1945)

He was my North, my South, my East and West,My working week and my Sunday rest,My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;I thought that love would last forever; I was wrong....For nothing now can ever come to any good.-------------------------------------------------W.H.Auden (1945)

He was my North, my South, my East and West,My working week and my Sunday rest,My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;I thought that love would last forever; I was wrong....For nothing now can ever come to any good.-------------------------------------------------W.H.Auden (1945)

Just got a very nice mail from the Harpia team as well as from Tom Cooper:

Quote from: Tom

It is with plenty of pride, and thus a true priviledge, to have the opportunity to post a flattening review of this book - prepared by nobody less but Norman Polmar - as published in June 2013 volume of the Naval Proceedings magazine (one of leading magazines of the US Navy).

« Last Edit: August 28, 2013, 05:41:05 am by Deino »

Logged

He was my North, my South, my East and West,My working week and my Sunday rest,My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;I thought that love would last forever; I was wrong....For nothing now can ever come to any good.-------------------------------------------------W.H.Auden (1945)

He was my North, my South, my East and West,My working week and my Sunday rest,My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;I thought that love would last forever; I was wrong....For nothing now can ever come to any good.-------------------------------------------------W.H.Auden (1945)

many thanks for your information on the latest Harpia Publishing books.I have already received my copies and finished reading the bok in IASF. Very nice stuff, indeed.

The 4th volume on Arab MiGs is really exciting. I like the new drawings (SAM sites) and hope for more in future (?) volumes.Do you know about any more upcoming Arab MiGs volumes as the 1973 War is still missing?

many thanks for your information on the latest Harpia Publishing books.I have already received my copies and finished reading the bok in IASF. Very nice stuff, indeed.

The 4th volume on Arab MiGs is really exciting. I like the new drawings (SAM sites) and hope for more in future (?) volumes.Do you know about any more upcoming Arab MiGs volumes as the 1973 War is still missing?

YES, very nice stuff indeed and even more its more than interesting to learn more about the other side of conflict or simply another opinion others than the so often repeated version mostly based on Israel's point of view. That's especially the point which I like the most on Harpia's approach - similar to my own book on the Chinese military: They don't care about what's written everywhere but what's behind even if some might don't like that.

Regarding the still "missing" 1973 War I think - to admit I'm not completely thru the book since I started with The Israeli AF book during the holydays (but Crete was too nice !) - this volume ends right before the war broke out in 1973 ... as such Vol. 5 will cover these events and for more I will ask Tom !

So hopefully more later,Deino

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He was my North, my South, my East and West,My working week and my Sunday rest,My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;I thought that love would last forever; I was wrong....For nothing now can ever come to any good.-------------------------------------------------W.H.Auden (1945)

We've just started working on Arab MiGs 5, are are still discussing the precise way to take. Thus, the best I can offer are some 'preliminary thoughts', i.e. a - rather rough - outline. (From that aspect, it would be actually interesting to hear any possible suggestions from readers.)

Yes, it's obvious that Volume 5 is heading for October 1973 Arab-Israeli War. Most likely, the same will be the case with Volume 6 too. But, what exactly is it (or are they) going to contain...?

Primary issue remains the coverage of Arab air forces, that's clear.

Secondary issue will be to provide the first ever - balanced - coverage of this air war at all. There are plenty of books about this war in general, all of them covering politics, intelligence (especially how Arabs managed to achieve a 'strategic surprise' on Israel), and - especially - on ground warfare. There are few 'general' books covering air warfare, but actually only in outline. Some book-authors went even so far as to say 'air warfare was not important for this conflict' (ho-hum...guess they never wondered 'how comes?'). There is a plethora of books about various IDF/AF units, with extensive chapters on their participation (characterised by getting 'particularly obscure' in regards of description of their losses or even operations that went wrong). There are some more recent Israeli books covering specific processes of decision-making related to the IDF/AF etc (like Peled's 30 Hours in October). But, there is not a single book so far concentrating solely on the issue of air warfare in 1973, and going in all relevant directions, i.e. providing a combination of strategic, tactical, and technological coverage, blow-by-blow descriptions, and summaries.

Third issue will be the following matter: careful readers of Volume 4 might have already observed that 'something is missing' between Chapters 5 and 6. That's right: we've had to remove the original Chapter 6, which was covering the 'No War, No Peace' phase of sporadic skirmishes between Egypt, Israel and Syria, in period 1970-1973. There was simply no place left in that volume for that chapter. So, this Chapter will be the starting point of Volume 5.

For all these reasons, we'll have to 'cover the IDF/AF too', at least a 'lil bit' more, in Volumes 5 and 6. Guess, this will be primarily related to dedicating more attention to cross-examination of Arab and Israeli claims. I guess we might decide to add boxes on Israeli nukes (i.e. Meir's 'nuclear alert & nuclear blackmail', which I find a particularly interesting, yet terribly underreported affair, especially because it stands in very close relation to the IDF/AF, of course, but also because it's entirely unlikely anybody in the West might come to the idea to publish some of the stuff that is meanwhile well-known); there might also be boxes on Combat Tree (hehe, I really doubt the IDF/AF F-4 crews were all the time detecting MiGs 'visually', as legends explain; alone considering how dependable Israel became on high-tech by that time in all other aspects related to defence, makes this entirely unlikely), on not only the US-, but also the Israeli (El Al) air-bridge from the USA (which began nearly a week earlier than the US air bridge); on Soviet air bridge etc. And also, I would like to add more artworks to either volume: this was the last major war of Egyptian, Iraqi and Syrian MiG-17s, and I think it would be 'nice' to offer them a sort of 'farewell' in this fashion.

But most of all, I hope there will be enough space for all the stuff we would like to squeeze in these two volumes.

Regarding their publishing dates: Vol. 5 should follow next year in September or October, not sure right now, but it's not going to be earlier or later. However, presently it looks like we'll do the Volume 6 'only' in 2016. At least it is so that Harpia has something else in plan for 2015. We'll see what happens (relevant decisions are unlikely to be brought before sometimes in spring or summer the next year, more likely only in September-October 2014).

We do have enough materials of necessary depth for one more volume, i.e. something covering the post-1973 times. But with that we're already talking about some long-term future (say, 'more than 3-4 years from now'). We'll see what comes out of that.

....

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He was my North, my South, my East and West,My working week and my Sunday rest,My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;I thought that love would last forever; I was wrong....For nothing now can ever come to any good.-------------------------------------------------W.H.Auden (1945)

He was my North, my South, my East and West,My working week and my Sunday rest,My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;I thought that love would last forever; I was wrong....For nothing now can ever come to any good.-------------------------------------------------W.H.Auden (1945)